Why does email sometimes go to spam?
Quick answer
Receiving servers score every incoming email on trust. If your domain is missing its email ID checks (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), if you send from a new or shared address, or if the content trips filters, you land in spam instead of the inbox.
The trust checks behind the scenes
When your email arrives, the receiving server asks: is this really from the domain it claims? Three DNS records answer that: SPF (which servers may send for you), DKIM (a cryptographic signature), and DMARC (what to do when checks fail). If they are missing or wrong, you look like a forger, and forgers go to spam.
Common small-business causes
- A website contact form sending "from" your own domain without those records set up.
- Sending from a brand-new domain with no history.
- Marketing-style content: lots of images, shouty subject lines, link shorteners.
- A shared hosting server whose other tenants have been spamming, which taints the address everyone on it shares.
What fixes it
- Have SPF, DKIM and DMARC set up for your domain. Ten minutes for whoever manages your DNS, and this alone fixes most cases.
- Send your contact form notifications through a proper mail service rather than raw from the web server.
- Warm up new domains gradually and keep content plain.
The takeaway
- Spam filters mostly measure whether the sender can be verified.
- SPF, DKIM and DMARC are the ID checks; missing ones send you to spam.
- Contact forms are the most common small-business victim.
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